Core-value anti-patterns

When I make decisions at work, I am mentally programmed and in many/most cases try to find the core value that this step mapped to - from a positive angle. That’s great and I think I should continue doing it. But there’s a flip side that I started thinking about…

Each time I identify the positive values I displayed when doing something, let me pause for 5 seconds and think - did I also impact some other value negatively? Maybe I didn’t. That’s awesome. But maybe I hesitated at times and instantly thought of a value I negatively impacted. And maybe every time, it's the same value that I found myself positively exhibiting or worse still, the same value I was negatively impacting. And if so, I might have been too guilty of being too strong an advocate of some values or too weak an advocate of other values.

But that was still too vague and I wanted to make it a bit more concrete and give myself and everyone else reading this some common anti-core-value-patterns to watch out for, for every single value. This list is not comprehensive by any means [please form your own questions]; but it should help you understand how every value can be incredibly toxic, if taken too far.

Bias for Action
Do you commit what we can do for a client or team without involving everyone who is affected?
Do you put pressure of any sort on other teams to meet your deadlines?
Do you do a task assigned to someone else because it's taking too much time?
Do you set goals for yourself or your team that are often not met or that you struggle to meet?
Do you find yourself thinking about MVP all the time?
Do you find yourself thinking that certain safety guardrails put in place only slow you down and should be gotten rid of?
Do you sometimes bypass these guardrails or attempt to escalate to leadership in an effort to “deliver on time”?
Do you often try and convince others whose job it is to slow you down, to move quicker? Build Trust
Do you find yourself waiting too long because you want to get everyone’s opinion on an action?
Do you promise someone something but then find you cannot deliver as promised?
Do you promise a client something and then end up working weekends and making your team work as well, to make sure you keep that promise?
Do you find yourself working in a direction not conducive to the team/company’s goals because you do not want to hurt someone’s feelings?
Do you find yourself reaching out to people who trust you to help you out because you planned poorly? Collaborate & Commit
Do you stay silent and agree even though you disagree with the group’s decision?
Do you never feel frustrated at work by something someone says or does?
Do you commit to something but then not put in the effort needed for the project to succeed, because you said yes to “just move on”?
Do you ignore your own intuition or persuade yourself you’re wrong because 10 other people had a different opinion?
When a decision turns out to be incorrect, do you end up mentally blaming everyone involved except yourself, because after all “you mentally disagreed at that time”
Are you often left feeling frustrated or powerless as a result of committing to group decisions? Consider the Long-View
Do you often get pushback from others saying your solutions are too long-term?
Do your solutions not immediately solve a pressing problem?
On analysing your solutions do you find that they are too costly (time, energy, money)?
Do you find yourself constantly labeling workarounds already in place as poor choices?
Do you find it difficult to get buy in for many of your ideas/work?
Are you often unable to change people’s minds after spending a lot of time on a well thought out (as per you) solution? Courage
Do you often “speak your mind” and then regret it?
Do you get feedback that you are too impulsive, rude or assertive?
Do you find yourself often needing to apologize to people for something you said or did?
Do you find yourself overcommitting and then end up having to overwork or waste someone else’s time for?
Do you ask “tough questions” or be a dissenting voice in every meeting?
Do you find that no one opposes anything you say most of the time? Critical & Informed Thinking
Do you find yourself drawing up Excel sheets or making detailed notes every time a decision needs to be made?
Do you often have too many solutions to a problem?
Do you spend a lot of time outside work researching “even better” solutions?
Have you received feedback from anyone that you suffer from “analysis paralysis” or that you over analyze things?
Do you ask for feedback on your work but often not receive much, resulting in you having to simplify your work?
Have you dismissed suggestions from others that sound right but are not backed by data? Deliver Impactful Results
Do you constantly reference targets, company goals, quotas, OKRs or objectives in conversations?
Do you display aggressive behavior in face to face conversations, emails or Slack messages with your colleagues?
Do you get frustrated when peers not as good as you in certain areas “do not deliver” in your eyes?
Do you often intervene in tasks being performed by others because you think it should be done a different way?
Have you received feedback from peers that you micromanage or that they want to be given the space to fail?
If you’ve not met your targets have you had trouble feeling optimistic about life in general? Innovation
Do you get irritated when needing to slow down and follow processes/methods in place?
Do you have new ideas every month that could change the direction of the team/company, but you think must be followed?
Do you learn new skills and then get excited when you see a situation where they could be applied?
Do you start a lot of tasks but complete only a subset of them because “it was clear” those ideas were terrible?
Do you continuously try and convince others to try new approaches?
Do you get a lot of positive feedback about how creative you are from multiple teams? Ownership
Do you have a never ending list of tasks on your plate all the time?Are some of these tasks really old but are still not done by anyone?
Do you find yourself always working much more than others on your team?
Do you have feedback on every item in every meeting, document, conversation or project?
Can many tasks not be completed/delivered/signed off on without your final approval?
Do you often have trouble saying No to anyone who asks you for help?
Have you received feedback from anyone about how it's amazing you can do all the things so well? Passion for Everyone We Serve
Have you missed out on your goals and been less productive but your peers have all succeeded thanks to your help?
Do you often fight the corner of the less powerful employee even when you know they are not completely right?
Do you accept everything a customer says and then proceed to convince your team to agree?
On the other hand, do you often push back saying customer requests are unrealistic, while pointing out internal workload?
Do you make emotional decisions at times even though the choice is not necessarily fully rational?
Do you make inequitable decisions at times because of your closeness or trust in a certain person? Relentless Improvement
Do you spend time solving a problem only to find yourself solving the same problem soon after?
Do people working with you tell you or get frustrated that you move too fast?
Have people felt burnt out, stressed, intimidated or left the company while working with you?
Have you felt let down when people do not improve at the pace you want them to?
Have you ever felt trapped in an “analysis paralysis” phase permanently?
Have people given you feedback that you don’t need to be perfect, but just good enough most of the time? Sustainable High Intensity
Do you often end up working after 6pm?
Do you often end up working weekends and encouraging your peers to do the same?
Do you often work greater than 8 hours a day?
Do you end up not meeting your team's deadlines and having to often ask for more time?
Do you feel the quality of your work suffering?
Do you often feel tired despite getting enough sleep? Uncompromising Integrity
Do you end up refusing to consider new ideas because someone somewhere is potentially impacted?
Are you often accused of being a blocker for change?
Do you feel upset or frustrated when people do not see things your way on ethical issues? Unconstrained Thinking
Do you often make statements that are not backed by data?
Do you act on hunches, intuitions or your gut and often succeed or fail?
Do you derail deep dive conversations by going on a tangent?
Do you spend too much time researching a problem only to then end up missing deadlines or commitments?
Do you get frustrated with your peers for being too safe in their thinking?
Do you always have a better idea of how to do things with everyone you ever meet?